Australia liable for Iranian asylum-seeker’s death

December 13, 2014 - 12:58

Appeals by Hamid Khazaei, who was suffering from septicemia, for medical attention had fallen on deaf ears for days.

A newly-leaked document shows that the Australian government is liable for the death of a young Iranian asylum-seeker by delaying his transfer from an offshore detention camp to hospital, Press TV reports.

The document, which was revealed on Friday, showed that the 24-year-old Iranian did not receive proper medical attention because the Australian government had delayed issuing a visa for his evacuation.

Hamid Khazaei was suffering from septicemia caused by an infection spreading as a result of a cut in the foot and had sought medical attention for days. However, he was denied treatment despite his repeated pleas in the Australian detention center on Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island.

The 24-year-old Iranian national was medevaced for emergency treatment from the detention camp on Manus Island to intensive care at Mater Hospital in Brisbane on August 27. He was later declared brain dead at the hospital.

The new report revealed that the Australian government officials had ignored the urgent request of medical staff even though they were told that Khazaei’s condition was life threatening.

In February, Reza Barati, 23, was bashed to death as a result of a “brutal beating” by an Australian guard on the same island. He sustained fatal head injuries after hundreds of asylum-seekers tried to break out of a camp on Manus Island.

Refugee groups say the Australian government is responsible for the death of Khazaei and Barati and have called for the resignation of the Immigration Minister Scott Morrison. However, with Morrison’s newly acquired powers and Australia further distancing itself from the UN Refugee Convention, that seems to be an unlikely outcome.

The developments come as Australia’s lower house of parliament on December 5 narrowly approved amendments to the country’s controversial immigration laws by introducing temporary visas for refugees, which do not grant settlement in Australia.